Volume III: Biographies

YOUNGE, Lucille *

Actress (1910-1911)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Lucille Younge joined Thanhouser in late 1910 and appeared in several Thanhouser films released in 1911.

Biographical Notes: Born as Lucia Medina in Lyons, France in 1892, Miss Younge was in many stage and vaudeville productions in her youth. Her role as May Read in the Thanhouser film When Love Was Blind represented her debut in motion pictures.

An article in the April 1914 issue of The Photoplay Magazine told of her brief Thanhouser tenure: "It is not generally known that Lucille Younge of the Pathé and Universal Western pictures was an Eastern leading lady, with the Thanhouser Company at New Rochelle. It was over three years ago and in the nature of a 'break-in' for Miss Younge. Her whole Thanhouser contribution was merely a matter of a few months, as she answered a call from the West. Her Thanhouser director was Lucius Henderson, and Miss Younge, leaving New Rochelle, said it was a real pain to part from his direction. Recently the new Majestic forces at Los Angeles found need for a new leading woman. The business representative of the company went to see Miss Younge. She wavered over the contract until the Majestic man mentioned that Mr. Henderson, who was transferred from New Rochelle to New Majestic, was the director who wanted her. Then she stuck her signature in the right place in a jiffy."

A number of other studio connections were omitted in this story, however. Following her stay with the New Rochelle studio for just a few months, she went to IMP (she was in The Brothers, an IMP release filmed in the summer of 1911), then to Eclair (where she was widely publicized as a leading lady), Lubin, Reliance, Majestic (where she was in the summer of 1914), Fine Arts, Paralta, American, and other studios.

In 1916 Miss Younge appeared in the Triangle-Fine Arts film, Old Folks at Home, in which she played a vamp named Lucia Medina, which in actuality was Miss Younge's name at birth. The 1917 edition of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory gave her address as care of American in Santa Barbara, California, where she was also located in 1918. Later films in which the actress appeared include Mutiny and Redwood Lane (Universal, 1916), The Topsy Turvy Twins (1917 Victor-Universal), Rose o' Paradise (Paralta, 1917), The Soul of Satan (Fox, 1917), Fuss and Feathers (Paramount, 1918), and The False Road (Paramount, 1920). She remained on the screen until at least 1930. Lucille Younge died in Los Angeles on August 2, 1934.

Her name was frequently misspelled as "Lucile" and "Young."

Thanhouser Filmography:

1910: The Vicar of Wakefield (12-27-1910)

1911: When Love Was Blind (1-24-1911), Adrift (2-3-1911), The Impostor (3-28-1911)

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